View Single Post

Thread: Nexus Character Directory

  1. - Top - End - #324
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Sophistemon's Avatar

    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: Nexus Character Directory

    Name: Silas Gourd
    Aliases: ‘Patch’
    Gender: Identifies as male
    Race/Species: Parasitical alien plant
    Age: Indeterminate
    Alignment: Neutral evil
    Class/Profession: Criminal mastermind
    Power Rating: B-

    Description: Silas Gourd is composed of a pumpkinesque ‘head’ that contains the majority of his sensory organs; this is supported by a twisting mass of prehensile, semi-mutable vines that he has forced into a humanoid shape. He tends to clothe himself in expensive, finely tailored suits that favor earth tones.

    Personality: Although he presents himself as debonair, beneath that thin veneer of classiness lies a monster just as inhuman as his appearance would suggest. There is no act too cruel or perverse as to be taboo, no moral or ethical boundary that he won’t gladly leap across in his ongoing pursuit of power.

    Equipment: Silas chooses to leave the handling of personal weaponry to his entourage of bodyguards, as he prefers to utilize his own mutable appendages while in battle. While this is generally sufficient, he tends to supplement his natural abilities with a slew of magical trinkets hidden away amongst his vines.

    Abilities: All of Silas’ supernatural abilities are derived from his plantlike nature. His solid composition makes him stronger and more durable than a mundane human being by several magnitudes. The vines that compose the majority his body are somewhat mutable, capable of elongation and sprouting various thorns, needles and burs, as well as eventual regeneration. Silas can also produce parasitical seeds that, when implanted in a host, release a chemical cocktail that enthralls them to his will. These seeds will sprout and grow into a new Silas Gourd, complete with all of the memories of the original (but bereft of his clothes and equipment) upon the event of his death, consuming the host’s body to fuel the process.

    Weaknesses: Because fire causes him greater than normal pain and impedes the regeneration of his wounded tissues he is, naturally, severely pyrophobic as a result. The presence of fire, whether it be mundane or magical, causes him to recoil and evaluate his options for escape. The addition of fire to a conflict may prompt greater violence as he becomes more and more desperate to get away from it.

    Background: That which would eventually become Silas Gourd fell from the sky many generations ago, embedding itself in what would grow to be lush and fertile farmland. Hundreds of years would pass before this seed of evil, senseless and ignorant, was unearthed by a farmer’s plow. When the man bent to investigate, the seed cracked open and a wormlike root burrowed into the flesh of his palm. Tendrils spread quickly, climbing the skeletal lattice and gorging on flesh and blood before bursting free of the skin, leaving shattered bones in their wake. Wane and weakened by its violent autogenesis, a newly-enlightened predator reconfigured itself into a rough approximation of its recent meal and began to gorge itself on the livestock of the farm, finding the sweetest meats on the bones of the farmer’s family. Both sated and strengthened by his gristly feast, Silas Gourd donned the farmer’s Sunday best and strode towards the city, his recently expanded consciousness busily exploring the possibility of greatly extended horizons. Since then he has successfully created a small but profitably efficient criminal empire that deals primarily in the sale of black market goods and pleasures of the flesh. He hopes to have his vines in a little bit of everything before too long and he often fantasizes of becoming the city’s King of Crime, although he knows that the competition for that coveted title is quite a bit more fierce than most.

    Miscellaneous: Silas operates out of the Golden Goose, a mixture of casino, bar and resteraunt located in Riverside's northern district. After midnight, the Golden Goose becomes the Golden Calf and caters to an exclusively criminal clientele by offering (in addition) black market auctions in the basement and a bordello on the second floor. He is assisted most closely in his various endeavors by Quirk and Foible, his twin half-orc bodyguards and by Sheila, his half-elf personal secretary.
    Last edited by Sophistemon; 2011-01-28 at 10:05 PM.